This invention relates generally to object tracking and control systems and more particularly to systems for tracking and controlling access to and disposition of trackable objects.
Access to and control of valuable and/or dangerous items, such as narcotics for example, needs to be carefully monitored, tracked, and controlled to assure against unauthorized access to or assure that proper and appropriate accesses is catalogued and monitored. Other items, such as jewelry and coins, have inherent intrinsic value such that it is important for retailers to keep track of access to and location of such items, while keys, such as keys to vehicles, have value because they provide access to other valuable objects such as automobiles and trucks or storage devices. There accordingly is a need to be able to track, catalogue access to, monitor and control such objects in a way that is reliable, simple to implement, and virtually tamper proof.
In the past, a variety of systems have been implemented to track and control objects. In the case of keys in an automobile dealership, for example, pegboards have been used to keep track of the keys as sales persons, maintenance personnel, and others remove keys for access to vehicles. Generally, sign out sheets have been used to log the check-in and checkout of such keys. Obviously, such a manual system of tracking has numerous shortcomings due in large part to the very real potential of human error and forgetfulness in carrying out the sign-in and sign-out procedures and the inability to monitor how long the keys are out of the storage repository and who has the keys.
More recently, automated computer controlled key tracking systems have been implemented for tracking, for example, vehicle keys at car lots and keys to the apartments of apartment complexes. One such system particularly applicable to the present invention is the key tracking system disclosed and claimed in my U.S. Pat. No. 5,801,628 the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
In this system, referred to herein as the xe2x80x9cKey Trackxe2x80x9d system, disclosed and claimed in my U.S. Pat. No. 5,801,628 keys to a vehicle are attached with a rivet or the like to a thin plastic key tag or card having a depending tongue. The tongue carries a small button-shaped electronic touch memory device, which stores the ID code. The tongues of the key tags are configured to be insertable in an array of slots formed in a panel within a storage drawer. A printed circuit backplane is disposed beneath the array of slots and is provided with a plurality of pairs of metal contacts, with each pair of contacts being aligned with a corresponding one of the slots. When the tongue of a key tag is inserted in a selected one of the slots, its touch memory device is engaged by the corresponding pair of contacts.
A computer based controller is electronically coupled through a data matrix to the contacts on the back plane and periodically polls each pair of contacts, preferably several times per second, to determine the presence or absence of a touch memory device and thus which slots contain key tags and which do not. When a slot contains a key tag, the touch memory device of the tag is read to determine its unique code, from which the identity of the particular key attached to the tag can be determined through a table lookup. In this way, the absence or presence in location of the key tags and their associated keys can be noted by the controller each time the array of contacts are polled. If a tag is present in a slot on a prior polling is absent on a subsequent polling, then the controller notes that the tag and its key has been removed from the storage drawer. Conversely, if a key tag is detected in a previously empty slot, the controller notes that the tag and its key have been replaced in the storage drawer. The removal and replacement of keys is therefore continuously monitored.
An access feature requires an authorized user such as a sales person to enter an I.D. code to unlock and access the storage drawer. When the history of removal and replacement of key tags and their keys is combined with other information, such as the time at which tags are removed and replaced and the identities of the person who accessed the drawer and times of access, access to the keys in the drawer can be controlled and a detailed tracking log can be created. This system greatly decreases instances of lost keys, reduces the time required to find checked-out keys, and generally provides automatic tracking and control of the keys, and thus, to a large extent, controls and tracks the vehicles to which they provide access.
While the Key Track system described above has proven extremely successful and valuable in the tracking and control of keys, it nevertheless has certain shortcomings. For example, currently, the system is unable to determine if any of the checked-out keys was actually used and if so, for how long. In many applications where this system is to be used, i.e., for armored car companies, the user or xe2x80x9croute-manxe2x80x9d typically may not know ahead of time exactly every stop he will have to make. Consequently, these users typically will need to take a set of keys, i.e., 10-20 or more, including one or more keys for each stop on their route, whether they will actually need all the keys or not. However, currently it is difficult to track which specific ones of the keys of such a group or set were actually used while checked out and if so, for how long.
Thus, even though the Key Track system has proven very useful and successful, there exists a continuing need to enhance the system in such a way that the problems mentioned above are addressed in an efficient, economic, and reliable way. It is to the provision of such enhancements and improvements that the present invention is primarily directed.
Briefly described, the present invention, in one preferred embodiment thereof, comprises enhancements to the Key Track system disclosed in my U.S. Pat. No. 5,801,628 incorporated herein by reference. More specifically, the invention comprises a mobile object tracking system for tracking the use of individual objects checked out or removed as a group from a larger collection of objects at a central storage location during the time that the group of objects are checked out. In a preferred embodiment, the objects to be tracked typically are keys stored in groups on a plurality of mobile object tracking carriers, each of which can be checked out and removed from a central storage location. However, it should be understood the present invention is applicable for tracking a wide variety of objects other than keys and that the xe2x80x9cobjectsxe2x80x9d used to describe the invention in the present application will be understood as being exemplary and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention to only a specific embodiment of the invention.
The mobile object tracking system generally is used either in conjunction with or as a part of the Key Track system disclosed and claimed in my U.S. Pat. No. 5,801,628. The mobile object tracking system generally includes a system controller, typically a computer or microprocessor-based controller, for recording, processing and reporting usage information for the objects being tracked. The system controller is linked to and controls access to one or more storage units in which a series of object carriers, each carrying a group of objects, are received and stored when not checked out for use by a user. The storage unit generally comprises an enclosure having a locking closure member, such as a door or drawer. This door is typically secured to the enclosure by an electromechanical lock controlled by the system controller in response to the entry of a desired ID code(s).
A series of carrier guides are mounted within the enclosure, each including slotted upper and lower guide plates between which the object carriers are received and are held in an upstanding attitude. A series of communication ports having biased contacts are disposed in the enclosure on a printed circuit back-plane that extends across the rear of the storage unit. A series of lock mechanisms are positioned adjacent each of the object carrier guides, and generally include electromechanical or electronic locks that each engage an object carrier received within a respective object carrier guide to prevent release of the object carrier until a control signal is received from the system controller to unlock the particular lock.
Each of the object carriers received and locked within the storage unit generally includes a substantially rectangular body, typically formed from a printed circuit board material, and is provided with its own a microprocessor having an internal memory and timer, and a data line, such as a serial bus, extended therethrough. The data line communicates with the microprocessor, which is further connected to a series of contact pads formed along one edge of the object carrier for communicating with the system controller when the object carrier is locked into the storage unit. In addition, at least one lock opening is formed through the body of each carrier. When the object carrier is received within its object assigned carrier guide within the storage device, the contact pads are engaged by the set of biased contacts of a communication port associated with that carrier guide within the storage unit, and a post or bar of the locking mechanism for that particular object carrier guide is extended through the lock opening to lock the object carrier within the storage unit.
A series of object holders are mounted to one side surface of each object carrier. Typically, the object holders comprise support brackets generally formed from a metal such as steel or a similar conductive material, and typically include a U-shaped plate having flanged, side edges that are mounted to the body of the object carrier using fasteners or other attaching means. Each of the support brackets forms a substantially rectangular receiving slot or key slot and further includes inwardly projecting spring contact member. A corresponding opening or bore generally is formed through the body of the object carrier opposite the spring contact of each support bracket, exposing the data line.
Typically, an identification tag is attached to each of the objects, i.e. a key, to be tracked by the system. Each identification tag is formed from a hard plastic, metal or similar material to which a key is mounted. In one embodiment of the object carrier, the keys can be further attached to their identification tag using a security ID strap that constricts key movement so that use of the key requires removing or breaking the ID strap. Typically, the ID strap would include a bar code identifier and is formed from a one-time use material to provide a visual indication that the key has been used. When the object carrier is checked in to the storage unit, the user restraps the used keys with new straps and scan the bar codes of all keys on the object carrier with a bar code scanner. The Key Track system can then determine which keys potentially were used or not based upon the recognition of original bar codes applied to keys that were not used versus new bar codes for the keys that were used.
In addition, the identification tags also can be provided with a touch memory button mounted at the base of the identification tag. Typically, the memory button will include an internal interval timer and contact surfaces. When an identification tag is inserted into a support bracket, one of the contact surfaces is engaged and grounded by the spring contact of the support bracket, while the other contact surface is urged through the corresponding opening or bore in the body of the object carrier into registration and communication with the data line of the object carrier.
When an object carrier is to be checked out and removed from the storage unit, the Key Track system controller initializes all identification tag timers and the internal timer of the object carrier processor to zero and starts the interval timers and the internal clock of the object carrier, and then unlocks the carrier for removal. Thereafter, while the object carrier is checked out, the removal of any key identification tags from the object carrier causes the interval timer within the memory button of that tag to halt. Thereafter, upon reinsertion of the key and its identification tag within the support bracket, the memory button is engaged between the grounding spring contact of the support bracket and the data line, causing the interval timer of the memory button to resume counting.
When the object carrier is checked back into the storage unit, the system controller communicates with the returned object carrier and halts the operation of the interval timers of the identification tags and the internal timer of the object carrier. The elapsed times of each of the interval timers then is compared with the time that the object carrier was checked out to determine which keys were removed from the object carrier, and thus used, during the time it was checked out and for how long.
In a further embodiment of the object carrier, the object carrier can include a local intelligence or microprocessor controller that functions similar to the key tracking system. The object carrier of this embodiment continually polls or monitors each of the object holders during the time that the carrier is checked out and away from the central storage drawer to see which objects, i.e. keys, are present or missing from the object carrier and for tracking how long such objects are removed from the object carrier. The object carrier further generally includes a display and keypad for entering location request information into the microprocessor controller, and addressable switches along its data line for identifying which identification tags, and thus which keys, are located in each particular object holder. In use, the user inputs identification codes for a desired key into the carrier controller, in response to which the location, i.e. the row and column for the object holder containing the desired key, is displayed.
In another embodiment of the object carrier of the present invention, the object holder can include an enclosure or similar storage device formed in the body of the object carrier in place of or in conjunction with the storage brackets, discussed above. The enclosure typically includes a closure member such as a door attached to the body of the object carrier and generally is used for storing documents such as paperwork associated with a set of car keys during servicing of an automobile for tracking the paperwork for an automobile with the keys therefor. Typically, a sensor is mounted within the enclosure, and the object to be stored within the enclosure, i.e. paperwork, will have a corresponding sensor or identification tag such as a reflective tape that is read by the sensor when the object is placed within the enclosure. When the object carrier is returned to the main storage unit, if this paperwork is missing, this absence is detected by the system controller, which activates an alarm or notifies supervisory personnel of a fault condition.
Various objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading the following detailed description, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings: